


Dancing Out In Space

by Silberias



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, I was taken by a strange mood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-04
Updated: 2017-06-04
Packaged: 2018-11-08 18:27:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11087427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silberias/pseuds/Silberias
Summary: Sansa has gone through bad times, so who can blame her when she chooses Oberyn Martell--a man who grins when he dances.





	Dancing Out In Space

**Author's Note:**

> I've been so refreshed and happy to read the wonderful Oberyn/Sansa fics that have been being posted. They are rich and wonderful and have given me inspiration to get back to writing. I wanted to write something in gratitude to the rest of you, writers and readers, so I do hope you enjoy it. I don't know a different way to show my utter gratitude. 
> 
> Title comes from the David Bowie song of the same name.

Sansa really liked dancing with Oberyn. He was energetic and aware, his body was utterly delectable to look at as he moved, and she never felt like she was some trophy or pet. There were some who would argue that she was just those things: arm candy for a man in his fifties. Others pitied her, thought her desperate and wronged. She knew differently, and tried to explain that she was perfectly happy.

For the most part, she lost herself in how fun it was to dance with someone who loved to dance--and in addition to that, someone who was concerned for her and valued her. Someone who asked her to put herself first.

It was a life where she could bundle up and stare at the rain for a whole day and other than Oberyn and his personal assistant--an overworked man named Daemon--there would be no one the wiser for it. When there were to be trips to the grocery store she had no budget, and if she bought food to donate to a food pantry or gave money to charities at the register there were no raised eyebrows at it. When she brought up her worries, Oberyn had laughed, bumping his hip against hers as they put away the groceries and asked which organizations he ought to become a patron of.

She'd been shocked when he created an endowment for one of the food banks she'd donated to--in _her_ name, no less.

Her mother and father worried incessantly. Oberyn was not on speaking terms with her father but he got on well enough with her mother--but that didn't mean her mother gave rubberstamp approval. She had been worried over the last men Sansa had taken up with and her worries had been justified in all three cases.

Joffrey had sent her to the emergency room and Sansa's brother had been arrested when he'd had beaten him up in return. There had been a minor scandal as her parents helped her press charges against Joffrey and Tywin Lannister had represented his grandson in court for the counter-suit against Robb. It had been a terrible mess and had ruined her father's friendship with Joffrey's father. Sansa had had to transfer to another university because Joff's friends would stalk her around campus, tormenting her.

Petyr had blackmailed her after discovering, and stealing, nude photos she'd taken of herself. She still didn't like going down on men, after her 'relationship' with Petyr. He had tried to be her friend, she had _thought_ he was her friend, and he had used that to get close enough to trap her. It had been perhaps the most stressful and isolated time in her life, fearing what people like her mother would say if they found out what Petyr had over her or the things he'd cajoled her into doing. In the end he hadn't released any of the photos when she worked up the courage to leave him, he hadn't done anything at all.

Then there was Harry. Sansa had thought she'd finally found a refuge with Harry, a handsome man close to her own age who had played guitar for her and cooked breakfast every day. They would sit and drink wine together, his head in her lap while she threaded her fingers through his hair, and talk about gardening or stars. It had been too idyllic. For then one day there was an eviction notice on their apartment door for non-payment of rent. Harry had kissed her forehead and said it was probably a mistake before heading out to the manager's office to sort things out. He never came back and Sansa's parents had had to come in and get some of the back-rent paid off and help her move back home.

Oberyn was different though. He was a rockstar with eight children and a politician for a brother--and the other half of his rock group was his longtime girlfriend, Ellaria, who was the mother of four of his children. After all her experiences Sansa knew everyone would have thought her to be the very last person to take up with him. Their relationship caused a lot of drama in her parent's social circle--this _had_ to be the last straw, they _had_ to have her put under some sort of mental health hold after this stunt, she must be _out of her mind_.

Ned Stark had not wanted to agree in public and had kept his peace but Sansa had seen it in his eyes, the deep concern there, but her mother had silenced the kerfuffle. For once there was nothing lurking beneath the surface with Sansa's newest beau. All of anything he might do he'd either already gotten out of his system or was blatant about otherwise. This didn't mean that she let Sansa do as she pleased without comment, but at least publicly she took Sansa's side.

"He's an older man, Sansa, but not like you've ever handled before," her mother had said, helping her put up her hair for a formal dinner with some of her mother's friends, "if--if Petyr was used to getting his way for his own cleverness, Oberyn will be used to getting his way for the simple fact that that he feels he's put in his time and earned it."

"He doesn't--"

"Whatever you're going to say, you don't know that yet. I may be," her mother's voice was firm as she uncapped the hairspray, "I may be wrong. I hope I'm wrong, you seem so happy that I hope I'm wrong. But he's gone through all the things that would sober and tame a man and he's as wild as ever. Your father doesn't approve the least bit, he is convinced he will get a call that you've been abandoned in a hotel room or left stranded somewhere in Essos or get in a custody battle over a child. My worry, though, is that you will wither and wilt trying to give this man something he's too set in his ways to articulate to you. That you will feel ignored and pushed aside because you are afraid to ruin something you think is good."

Catelyn's words of advice had helped because the next time she saw Oberyn she had sat him down and laid out those worries to him directly. Sansa didn't leave it to fester in her mind nor did she choose to give him hints and hope that he understood them. He had been surprised but it didn't scare him way, he didn't get defensive. Oberyn had listened and when she started to cry, for saying it all out loud to him brought home her mother's worries, he held her hand and stayed quiet.

She had rarely felt so cherished in her adult life, and Sansa had known that she'd found a home in him--at least for now. So she danced, and watched him dance, and enjoyed herself. There were things about her relationship that would have made other women turn tail and run, such as the on-off presence of Ellaria as well as the children that he had, but Sansa powered through. Ellaria didn't scare her, and Ellaria never _tried_ to scare her. The children, who ranged from their mid-thirties to their late teens, had their own lives but they were used to their father's girlfriends. At first they'd been kind to her in a distant kind of way, believing her to be a short-term presence in Oberyn's life, but that had turned into something more as the months turned into a year, then two.

Oberyn remained a constant. He complained about going in to the studio to record with Ellaria, he hummed love songs when they cooked together, he celebrated her successes in her garden, he asked her before doing anything truly audacious--though his glee had been palpable when she'd let him walk to the Florians with both herself and Ellaria on each of his arm. Sansa was content, she felt so utterly at peace.

It seemed about to fall to pieces, though, when she returned home from a trip to visit her parents and Oberyn was waiting for  her. His face split into a smile but she could tell he was on edge, that there was something on his mind that he was trying to hide. He was supposed to be on a trip to Oldtown to visit his daughter Sarella who was a PhD candidate at the university there.

Sansa girded herself to get bad news. There were a hundred different things Oberyn might choose to leave her over on a given day, though she'd lived these last few years believing that they could get through it because they'd gotten through it so far without any scrapes. They hardly ever fought but--

"Will you marry me?"

Her eyes must have bugged wide for he laughed, fishing in his pocket for a small velvet bag and opening it. A little ring tumbled into his palm and he held it out to her. She put down her bag and took a hesitant step forwards, willing her fingers to stop trembling as she delicately touched the metal band. Platinum, her favorite metal for jewelry, with three topaz stones embedded in it. Sansa tore her eyes from it up to meet Oberyn's. His dark hair, getting more salt than pepper every day, was a little unkempt but his eyes were steady on hers.

"Why?"

He huffed a laugh, reaching his free hand up to cup her cheek, drawing her closer to himself.

"Because I love you, and that's--that's the right thing to do when you love someone."

"You've got cancer don't you?"

Oberyn's chuckle was less restrained, more of a cackle, but darkness didn't enter his face. He was not facing down some personal struggle and panicking, looking for a lifeline. He was serious, but not because he was desperate.

"We've been in a holding pattern, and I don't plan on leaving you anytime soon. I think that there's some anxiety between us that we've never actually made plans for a permanent life together. Nothing that's ruined our fun," he said, putting the ring into her hand and closing her fingers over it, "but we deserve to be as happy as we can. Think it over for me, and I will live if you say no."

"You're sure it isn't cancer?"

He kissed her, murmuring that she was being naughty by teasing him so. In her palm the ring was quickly warming to the temperature of her skin. She tilted her head so he would kiss her forehead before lifting her hand up, opening her fingers, and holding out her other hand.

"Yes, I'll marry you, stop pouting."

The ring slid easily onto her finger and Sansa took a deep breath as she stared at the topaz. It had never seemed like it would matter so much, and this was something she'd never expected from Oberyn--it was never something she'd demand from him either. After her turbulent relationships she'd secretly thought that she was never going to get married, that she would just drift from man to man as she found ones that were good to her. Despite the good years with Oberyn she'd told herself to be ready for the end of those good years, no matter how much she'd wanted them to last.

"Let's go dancing," she added, looking up at him and trying to blink away sudden tears. Oberyn's answering smile was like being bathed in sunlight.

**Author's Note:**

> Please let me know what you thought!
> 
> (Obviously the "Florians" = the Grammys)


End file.
